Echo

The Plan

4 months later
Echo POV

I swung Olli around, his giggle echoing through the hall. I made inaccurate plane noises as I made him fly around- which he thought was hilarious.

His giggle eventually became infectious and I started to laugh too until we both stopped what we were doing and just laughed. It'd get silent finally and then one of us would laugh again making the whole process go over again.

A gunshot rang suddenly from outside and all joy vanished. It was so close that I felt it ring in my chest. Olli's eyes turned from joyful to wide and scared, "It's okay, i'm sure everything's okay, " I reassured trying to keep myself calm so that he'd believe me. I grabbed his hand gently and walked him toward his room.

"Did you hear that?" I heard Clover say in a panic as she scurried down the hall with her two sons clung to her side.

"Yeah, i'm gonna go see what it was." I said placing my hand on her shoulder in a comforting manner.

"Please stay here." Olli said with a frown.

"I have to go see if everyone's okay, but i'll be back, I promise. Clover will stay with you," I said looking at her and she nodded reassuringly.

"I luv you echo," he said sweetly as I was about to make my way outside.

My heart gleamed, "I love you too Olli." I gave him a big squeeze and a kiss on the forehead.

Taking a deep breath,I made my way down the hall and outside.Everyone was grabbing guns and loading them quickly. I ran to Molly, "What's going on??"

Her voice broke, "Someone's outside the gates, they almost shot Brandon off the watch post. They said they'll kill all us if we don't open the gate.They say they wanna talk." She said in a panic as she handed me a rifle.

We both bolted to the gate with everyone else and waited for Lincoln to give orders.

"We can talk. But I won't open these gates!"Lincoln shouted.My eyes stung and I felt so many emotions at once, like at any moment I'd explode.

"We...are in charge now. I'll give you five seconds or I'm opening the gate myself!" a deep voice boomed.

Lincoln motioned with his hand to take cover. Everyone hid behind a car, garden bed, or beside the guard post; ready to fight. I ran closest to the entrance of the building taking cover behind the police station sign and waited.

I tried to focus on my breathing, focus on staying calm. I felt someone grab my hand and when I looked over it was Cody. "We wont let them near Olli," he stated, his eyes filled with fortitude.

I nodded once, needing to hear that, because now I wasn't focused on my breathing. I was focused on Olli, on Cody's reassuring hand in mine, on my family, my home. I squeezed his hand waiting for the chaos to start and as soon as the gate was driven into, we let go and began to shoot at the armored trucks and the people hiding behind them.

After what seemed like hours of shooting back and forth a smoke grenade smacked on the ground in the center of the yard. "Take cover!!" we heard Lincoln shout as the smoke began to consume the whole area in an instant. Everyone began coughing as the smoke entered our lungs and then a voice could be heard,

"Enough!! Hold all fire!!" a women's voice shouted through some sort of speaker. "If you want us to leave your home,Hand over the girl. The one responsible for killing my soldiers...my husband! That's all I want!"

"I don't know who you're talkin bout!" Lincoln yelled through his coughing, through the collar of his shirt that was used as a mediocre gas mask.

"Echo." she hissed deeply. Cody and I looked at each other to make sure what we heard was right and unfortunately it was. "I want Echo!" How does she know my name? I went to get up but Cody pulled me down by my arm and shook his head.